Romance of the River Kingdoms II

The Romance of the River KingdomsFrom Dictionary.com:ro·mance
–noun
1. a novel or other prose narrative depicting heroic or marvelous deeds, pageantry, romantic exploits, etc., usually in a historical or imaginary setting.
2. the colorful world, life, or conditions depicted in such tales.
4. a baseless, made-up story, usually full of exaggeration or fanciful invention

By the light of Growling Ape's staff the group heads down the tunnel. Ape and Mystal can tell that others have travelled to the right, where the tunnel slopes downwards, and the left, upward slope is untouched.

So, right it is.

The tunnel (pipe?) continues for another few hundred yards before it becomes obvious that it opens out into a larger space. There is the faint odour of stale water, the flicker of firelight and the sound of voices. The speakers are talking in hushed tones, and there is a considerable echo as if the space where large and vaulted. The words are indistinguishable.

The tunnel emerges in the middle of a wall of cut stone, a drop into darkness below. It opens into a room filled with a scaffold of stone walkways and columns, that vanishes into darkness in all directions. A narrow wooden plank connects the end of your tunnel to the nearest walkway. About 100 ft. away is a small campfire with figures around it. You have spotted their light source, but they have also spotted yours and are scrambling to their feet and reaching for weapons.

Picture

The room is something like this. The second picture in terms of atmosphere, but the first gives a better idea of the architecture.

OOC: There are six of them, just as there were six who got away. At this distance and illumination you can't be sure if they are the same, or if any of them are undead (they all have their heads still).

"Are they your enemies?" asks Gold. Before anyone can reply he holds his hands to his chest and a substance that looks like gold glass forms over his his chest and legs. "Until we can tell it may be best to prepare ourselves."

(ooc)Activate Power: Inertial Armor; PP Spent:1

Last edited by strawhat; Tuesday, 29th June, 2010 at 12:16 PM.
Reason: Forgot to say what I was doing.

"Well, we don't know exactly, but the count matches those that fled from us last time. I'll go and prepare an ambush, talk to them and see if we can get them to surrender. And spread out, we don't need another fireball!"

Mystal takes cover behind one of the pilars, blocking sight from those inside, climbs up a bit and all but dissapears into the shadows of the columns.

Actions

Move out about 20' from the party toward enemies and wait for the chance to drop behind them. If there is a bridge they could access to approach the party he comes above or under it unseen and waits for the chance to cut the ropes

Annika reaches into herself and finds the river of spirit flowing more strongly than ever. Flames wreathe her hands as she murmurs a spell, and the air around her shimmers and wavers with dry, baking heat. When she steps into a shalow puddle, the water steams where it touches her foot.

(Casting Shield)

She then heads into the room resolutely, watching to see if any of the bandits starts to cast a spell.

As the group moves into the room, the figures aroundt he fire stand up and draw weapons. All except one, who throws back his hood to reveal that the whole of the back of his skull is missing. His head is just an empty shell, but a pale yellow light glows from his eye sockets. He casts something to the ground and a dark spirit rises up, the darkness seems to coalesce to form it. Two of the figures act quickly, breaking away from the group and flitting between the pillars and shadows off to the right.

The bottom and left-hand side of the map marks the wall of the cistern, but it continues to the top and right. There are identical layers above and below, with about a forty foot drop down to water in the gaps between the walkways.

Edit for Neurotic: all the connecting walkways, apart from the plank from the tunnel, are stone, part of the overall construction.